The death has been announced of the Most Revd. Prince Kermit Poling (Polanie-Patrikios) of Miensk (in ecclesia Mar Titus), titular Bishop of Tayma in the Apostolate of the Holy Wisdom and the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church, and Ecclesiast of the Byelorussian Patriarchate of St Andrew the First-Called Apostle. He was 74 years of age.

Dr Poling was the only living bishop of the Apostolate of the Holy Wisdom and the Ancient Catholic Church, which derive their succession from the nineteenth-century consecration of Mar Julius of Iona by the Syrian Orthodox Church. The Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church entered into intercommunion with the Apostolic Episcopal Church immediately following its formation in 1943.

Dr Poling was a friend of the Primate and he and Dr Kersey maintained a lively and extensive correspondence during his last years. He was also a friend of the late Archbishop George Boyer of the A.E.C. and a member of the Order of Corporate Reunion.

As the head of the House Polanie-Patrikios and descendant of the Byzantine emperors, as well as heir-elect to the Byelorussian crown, he was much involved with chivalric matters, and served latterly as Royal Patron of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi, with which he had been involved for forty years and which is also headed today by Dr Kersey.

Upon his passing, Dr Kersey succeeds him in the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church as canonical head-at-line of that communion, which will be united with the Apostolic Episcopal Church. With the consent of Dr Poling’s family, Dr Kersey was additionally adopted as his heir in his other ecclesiastical and nobiliary offices, and further announcements concerning these will follow in due course.

“We profess to be a Branch of the Eastern Church and, therefore, a valid branch of the Universal Church, whose Symbol of Faith is the apostolic, eastern confession, and whose Orders through Episcopal Succession are derived from the ancient Eastern episcopate which is traced back to the primitive Church of the East and to the Apostles and to Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Rt. Revd. Arthur Wolfort Brooks (1889-1948); founder of the Apostolic Episcopal Church